but i do believe in education. i believe we should invest in our education systems. smaller classes. no high-capacity schools, because they produce morons. the great and the good want their kids to have the best. you mentioned something that i disagree with. the reason why american consumers consume more than europeans is not a cause of some kind of fundamental cultural difference. what you have -- first, america was the only country that had been effectively untouched by the war. so you had more consumption for durables. i am not sure that americans -- naturally, americans would be the first to enjoy them. then, after that, what you have is a massive reduction in the real wage, the real median wage. i do not know if you know that. today we do not have a real median wage that is anywhere near where it was in 1972. what has been the effect between 1970's and 2008 is that living standards were being pushed into the ground, hours were being expanded to make ends meet. real hourly wages were declining. they were working longer hours. that put enormous strain on families.